There are a lot of interesting characters seen throughout Final Fantasy 9, but Ragtime Mouse is perhaps one of the weirdest that players will come across. That’s if they can actually find it. The elusive “side quest” only appears at certain points during the journey, in the forests of Gaia. Diligent gamers will eventually come across this eccentric creature, where they will be thrown into a quiz.
There are a plethora of true and false questions to answer, and players will be given a slew of gil and maybe experience for their time. Spawning all Ragtime Mouse encounters can be a bit of a pain in terms of RNG, but it is possible to “do a little bit of the system” to persuade the creature to hide. Here’s a rundown of everything gamers will need to know about Ragtime Mouse and its curious quizzes.
Where’s the Ragtime Mouse?
It’s not so much about where Ragtime Mouse is, but rather when it is. The creature can appear as an encounter in any Gaia Forest and the number of times it can spawn correlates with specific “times” in the game. A player’s progress is directly related to how many Ragtime mice can be encountered, but (luckily) pass a “checkpoint” “will not cause players to miss any potential questions. Everything is cumulative, and if players never bother to search for Ragtime Mouse until the end of the game, they are still able to complete their quiz in its entirety.
The “control points” generated by Ragtime Mouse look like this:
- AFTER the players have left the evil forest but BEFORE they arrive on the Outer Continent, it can be met up to 4 times.
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The second checkpoint is after the players have made their way to the outer continent, but BEFORE obtaining the Hilda Garde III. Ragtime Mouse can be viewed up to 10+ times.
- AFTER players have obtained the Hilda Garde III, all available encounters for the quiz beast will be available.
How often does the Ragtime mouse appear?
Unfortunately, this is where things get a bit “gritty”. Ragtime Mouse only has a 1/365 step chance (after players start running) to spawn (1/231 after obtaining the Blue Narciss). It is important to note that the character will not appear until 20 seconds have passed on the world map. This means it is possible to “respawn” a Ragtime mouse in the same forest AFTER a player has encountered one. by simply waiting in a stationary position for 20 seconds.
With such a possibility of meeting the board and so many other encounters, it’s easy to see why it might be difficult to find the Ragtime Mouse effectively. Fortunately, there is an “exploit” that players can use. Players who press the movement buttons in very light increments will likely avoid any encounter with local wildlife, but Ragtime Mouse’s encounter rate is unrelated to that “trick”. This means that by moving slowly and stuttering, players can filter all encounters except those containing Ragtime Mouse.
A nifty trick is to stand in the forest near the ice cave, using it as an entry point whenever the Ragtime mouse is encountered will allow it to “reset”. Once players enter and exit the Ice Cave, they are technically in a “refreshed” Overworld.
How do you correctly answer the Ragtime Mouse quiz?
There are 16 possible questions to answer, 15 of them being completely random in their order. Here is an overview of all possible questions and their answers.
| Question | Reply |
|---|---|
| Lindblum’s air taxis operate 24 hours a day. | True |
| Treno’s café, Card Carta, is for members only. | True |
| Chocobo Forest is located between Lindblum and South Gate. | True |
| The Prima Vista theater ship uses mist as a source of energy. | True |
| Lindblum Castle is larger than Alexandria Castle. | True |
| The Berkmea cable cars have been in operation for eight years. | True |
| Some Mus are friendly and do not attack. | True |
| Only one desert exists in the whole world. | False |
| Prima Vista means love at first sight. | False |
| The Bobo bird is a bird that brings you fortune. | False |
| “I want to be your canary” was written by Lord Afon. | False |
| The 15th Lindblum War began in 1600. | False |
| The theater ship Prima Vista was built at the Artania shipyards. | False |
| Condé Petie is a village of goblins. | False |
| Fossil Roo is a tunnel that connects Treno and Alexandria. | False |
The 16th and final question for Ragtime Mouse will always be:
| Question | Reply |
|---|---|
| You can defeat Ragtime Mouse. | True |
Players who manage to Correctly answering all Ragtime Mouse questions will receive up to 70,000 gil, EXP, Ring of Protection, and Achievement / Trophy in new versions of the famous Final Fantasy title.
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